The  Rural  New-Yorker 
THE  BUSINESS  FA  TIMER'S  PAPER 
A  National  Weekly  Journal  for  Country  mul  Suburban  Homea 
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.Tons'  .1,  IlibbON,  Tie.'siurer  and  General  Miinugcr, 
wm.  F.  Dillon',  Hre  ret  ary  Wits.  E.  T.  RoSm:.  Associate  Editor. 
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Advertising  rates,  75  cents  per  nirate  lino — 7  words.  References  required  for 
advertisers  unknown  to  us  ;  am!  cash  must  accompany  transient  orders. 
"  A  SQUARE  DEAL” 
We  believe  that  every  advertisement  in  tills  paper  is  backed  by  a  respon¬ 
sible  person.  We  ue«  every  possible  iiivvauMon  and  admit  the  advertising  of 
reliable  bouses  only.  Rut  to  malic  doubly  sure,  we  will  make,  good  any  loss 
to  paid  suhsertbeiv.  sustained  by  trusting  any  deliberate  swindler,  Irrcspon* 
r.lble  advcrtlncrs  or  ralsJead'r.r  advi-rtlo  incnta  in  on r  columns,  and  any 
such  swindler  will  he  publicly  exposed-  We  arc  also  often  called  upon 
to  adjust  dllt'ercnceii  or  mistake*  between  our  miliecribers  and  honest, 
responsible  bouses,  whether  advortiscrs  or  rot.  We  willingly  nm  our  good 
offices  to  tills  end,  but  such  cases  Oiould  not  bo  confused  with  dishonest 
transactions.  Wc  protect  subsoil  am  against  rogues,  but  we  will  not  lie 
responsible  for  the  debts  of  nonest  bankrupts  sanctioned  by  the  courts, 
Notice  of  the  complaint  must  be  sent  to  us  within  one  month  at  the  time  of 
the  transaction,  and  to  identify  it.  you  should  mention  The  Rohan  New- 
Yorker  when  writing  the  advertiser. 
Good  Friends  Who  Stick 
No.  11. 
surely  stay 
after 
yea  r : 
OUR  readers  surely  stay  by  us  year  after 
year: 
I  am  a  farmer,  and  began  to  read  The  R.  N.-Y.  at 
the  agricultural  college.  All  through  college  I  found 
it  the  best  and  quickest  way  to  keep  in  touch  with 
“the  organization  of  rural  interests.”  Now  that  I  am 
farming,  T  can  realize  more  fully  the  situation  the 
farmer  is  against  with  the  organized  middlemen.  Your 
editorials  are  fine.  I  agree  with  most  of  them,  but 
if  1  do  not  they  make  me  think  hard  to  form  my  op¬ 
position.  M.  O.  FABEB. 
Ohio. 
Who  can  possibly  know  more  about  the  ‘‘organi¬ 
zation  of  rural  interests”  than  the  farmers  them¬ 
selves?  Tiie  R.  N.-Y.  tries  to  get  down  on  the 
ground  where  the  farmers  live  and  work.  By  the 
way,  do  you  realize  how  we  are  growing?  Last 
year  (1915)  we  printed  15.12  pages.  This  year 
(1916)  there  are  160S  pages,  or  a  gain  of  70  pages. 
That  makes  some  reading  for  a  penny ! 
17/>e  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
mors  all  over  the  State  are  meeting  and  demanding 
that  this  Department  be  continued  with  greater 
powers  and  backing. t  Thus  the  issue  will  be  clear¬ 
ly  made,  and  there  will  be  a  battle  which  will  shake 
Albany  and  decide  the  political  destiny  of  several 
aspiring  politicians.  We  shall  see  that  it  is  all 
brought  nut  as  the  fight  develops.  The  thing  to 
do  now  is  to  pin  your  representatives  right  down 
before  the  bosses  sew  them  up.  Do  not  stand  for 
any  “careful  consideration,"  but  lead  them  right 
out  in  the  open  and  give  them  the  acid  test. 
Since  the  article  on  page  1597  was  put.  in  type, 
the  Wicks  Committee  has  issued  a  brief  report.  The 
principal  feature  is  a  recommendation  to  organize 
a  new  department  to  be  called  the  Food  Depart¬ 
ment.  The  report  entirely  ignores  the  fact  that  we 
already  nave  a  department,  embracing  that  name, 
with  broader  and  more  comprehensive  plans  than 
Senator  Wicks’  proposition  for  the  new  department. 
Every  other  feature  of  the  report  exeof)t  the  color¬ 
ing  of  ice  cream  is  nothing  hut  a  partial  and  feeble 
endorsement  of  abuses  that  have  been  more  clear¬ 
ly  and  more  strongly  expressed  in  The  R.  N.-Y.  and 
other  papers  for  many  years.  The  report  admits 
that  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  has  been  sus¬ 
pended  by  dealers,  though  we  have  heavy  penalties 
for  such  violations  of  law,  but  the  remedy  now 
suggested,  after  farmers  have  found  a  way  to  make 
the  law  of  supply  and  demand  effective  themselves, 
is  to  legalize  the  combinations  of  dealers  that  have 
previously  existed  in  open  violations  of  law.  The 
real  purpose  between  the  lines  here  is  to  defeat 
Commissioner  Dillon’s  plan  to  sell  milk  direct  from 
the  farmers'  cooperative  plants  through  butchers 
and  grocers  to  the  consumer  at  a  saving  of  3c  a 
quart,  over  last  year's  prices  between  producers  and 
consumers. 
* 
Happy  New  Year! 
THAT  is  no  common  perfunctory  expression  on 
our  part,  but  a  sincere  heart-felt,  wish!  For 
many  years  now  we  have  seen  the  New  Year  come 
December  30,  1910. 
and  issued  a  temporary  injunction  against  certain 
retailers  and  wholesalers  for  violation  of  the  Order, 
The  order  is  returnable  December  20,  1910,  and  it  is 
expected  that  the  order  will  he  made  permanent, 
and  that  there  will  he  no  more  ISc  cold  storage  eggs 
sola  in  competition  with  fresh  eggs,  which  now  cost 
three-quarters  of  a  dollar  a  dozen  to  produce. 
THERE  is  a  story  of  a  Scotchman  who  was 
asked  to  write  a  letter  of  recommendation  for 
his  gardener.  The  man  had  been  dishonest  and 
taken  a  "rake-off,”  but  for  the  sake  of  the  wife  and 
family  the  employer  wrote  the  following: 
“I  hereby  certify  that  A.  B.  has  been  my  gardener 
for  over  two  years,  and  that  during  that  time  he  got 
more  out  of  my  garden  tbau  any  man  I  ever  em¬ 
ployed.” 
The  fact  is,  that  is  about  as  useful  as  the  ordin¬ 
ary  letter  which  employers  write.  It  is  a  perfunc¬ 
tory  process  which  most  business  men  understand  as 
meaning  little  or  nothing. 
I  ex. toy  your  paper  and  read  it  first  of  all  those  I 
take,  hut  do  not  agree  with  you  in  your  attitude  to¬ 
ward  railroads,  express  companies  or  the  middleman. 
The  representatives  of  all  three  of  the  above  are  men 
like  ourselves,  breathing  the  same  air  and  subject  to 
the  same  laws.  Stockholders  elect  officers  to  represent 
them  as  their  servants,  and  when  you  say  caustic  and 
bitter  things  of  these  servants  you  should  remember 
that  you  and  I,  as  stockholders,  are  after  all  “the 
companies."  Charles  RirLEY. 
Massachusetts. 
WHEN  all  men  agree  with  us  wo  shall  consider 
it;  time  to  get  out  and  do  something  des¬ 
perate,  for  that  would  he  evidence  ot  approaching 
stagnation.  As  for  the  express  companies,  we  do 
not  consider  them  “subject  to  the  same  laws"  when 
through  their  careless  handling  of  packages,  they 
bring  ruin  to  egg  producers — as  they  have  done.  We 
are  not  stockholders  in  any  express  company.  If  Mr. 
Ripley  is  a  stockholder  we  will  ask  how  much  he 
has  done  to  make  his  servant,  subject  to  the  mas¬ 
ter!  That  is  a  good  suggestion,  though,  and  it  fol- 
MOST  people  are  inclined  to  talk  too  much  about 
the  things  which  interest  them.  A  man  may 
be  deeply  interested  in  a  thing  and  yet  know  very 
little  about  it,  because  lie  has  analyzed  it  with  his 
tongue  rather  than  with  his  brain.  A  worthy  thing 
will  do  its  own  talking — plain  and  penetrating. 
Too  many  words  woven  around  a  thing  make  it 
appear  like  a  soft-slielled  egg,  aqd  put  it  out  of  the 
hatching  class. 
* 
WE  recently  asked  if  any  farmers  in  New  Jer¬ 
sey  are  organizing  to  use  the  Rural  Credits 
law.  Now  we  are  told  that  on  December  9  a  land 
bank  association  was  organized  at  Farmingdale, 
Monmouth  Co.,  N.  J.  It  will  be  all  ready  to  transact 
business  by  February,  Are  we  right  in  saying  that 
this  is  the  first  association  of  the  kind  to  be  or¬ 
ganized  on  the  Atlantic  slope?  We  learn  of  an¬ 
other  nearly  ready  in  Vermont. 
WE  have  again  and  again  advised  our  readers 
not  to  send  small  lots  of  produce  to  this 
great  market  if  they  can  possibly  get  a  fair  price 
at  home.  From  the  very  nature  of  the  city  trade 
these  little  shipments  cannot  be  handled  to  best 
advantage.  The  transportation  and  handling  costs 
more  proportionately  than  is  the  case  with  larger 
lots,  and  buyers,  in  ordinary  times,  will  not  give 
as  much  for  the  smaller  shipments.  The  home 
market  is  far  better  for  the  small  lots  of  goods, 
and  unless  they  are  of  very  superior  quality  they 
will  not  compete  on  even  terms  with  larger  lots 
of  uniform  grade.  We  do  not  advise  these  small 
shipments. 
* 
SOME  women  will  jump  10  feet  at  the  sight,  of 
a  harmless  little  mouse.  We  have  seen  strong 
men  tremble  or  run  across  the  field  if  a  little  snake 
crossed  their  path.  A  man  who  got  fat  on  the  food 
served  in  a  lumber  camp  was  made  sick  at  the 
sound  of  a  file  on  a  saw.  The  trouble  “got  on  their 
nerves."  We  feel  something  of  the  same  nervous 
shock  when  some  politician  writes  that  lie  will  give 
“careful  consideration”  to  a  complaint  or  a  request! 
Some  of  our  readers  have  already  written  to  Al¬ 
bany  about  the  Foods  and  Markets  Department. 
Back  come  letters  stating  that  “careful  considera¬ 
tion"  will  be  given.  Now  we  all  know  that  this 
means  nothing  at  all.  It  is  just  a  perfunctory  and 
petty  lie.  and  nothing  more.  “Careful  eonsidera- 
nnd  go  to  the  big  family  of  The  R.  N.-Y.  It.  has 
come  to  our  people  with  all  sorts  of  messages,  but 
through  it  all  there  has  been  growth  and  progress. 
We  can  all  come  together  with  hope  and  faith  that 
the  year  1917  is  to  be  the  best  we  have  ever  known. 
The  years,  as  they  pass  in  long  review,  bring  vary¬ 
ing  gifts  to  the  sons  of  men  !  Some  men  stop  grow¬ 
ing  at  50  years,  or  even  before.  They  turn  sour  and 
prejudiced,  and  look  with  a  yellow  eye  upon  the 
world.  Each  new  year  i  resents  a  yet  more  gloomy 
view  to  them  They  cannot  grow  while  everything 
else  in  the  World  around  them  is  moving  on  and 
changing  in  spirit. 
“ Let  no  man  despise  thy  youth,  hut  he  thou  an 
example  to  the  believers  '" 
Then  there  are  men  who  never  grow  old  in  heart 
or  spirit.  Out  of  the  experience  which  comes  to 
them  with  gray  hair  they  take  the  sweetness  and 
the  faith  of  life,  and  go  on  into  the  battle  truly 
“an  example  to  the  believers."  It  is  with  this  hit¬ 
ter  spirit  that  The  R.  N.-1t.  greets  its  readers  as 
the  "old  year"  passes  out  to  join  the  silent  ma¬ 
jority.  The  new  year,  to  us,  represents  youth  with 
all  its  powers  and  possibilities.  It  is  rich  in  the 
legacy  of  experience,  but  that  is  like  treasure  bur¬ 
ied  in  the  soil — of  little  value  until  it  is  dug  up 
and  applied  to  our  present  needs.  This  year  is  to 
be  great  in  achievement.  Farmers  are  learning  how 
to  get  together  and  how  to  fight  their  battles  ef¬ 
fectively,  and  during  1917  they  will  have  the  chance 
to  test  their  weapons  The  R.  N.-Y.  goes  into  the 
New  Year  liappy  in  the  thought  that  more  and 
more  of  our  readers  understand  that  if  we  are  to 
have  our  just  rights  we  must  fight  for  them.  Our 
New  Year’s  present,  is  a  pledge  to  devote  every  pow¬ 
er  that  we  possess  to  the  work  of  giving  farmers 
that  faith  and  hope  and  courage  which  will  en¬ 
able  them  to  get  together  in  a  fair  and  honorable 
battle  for  common  rights. 
Happy  New  Year! 
We  might  add  that  if  we  had  our  choice  of  a 
New  Year’s  present  we  would  make  our  annual  re¬ 
quest  for  a  great  subscription  mail  on  January  2. 
Every  year  we  have  an  ambition  to  make  this  first 
subscription  mail  the  largest  in  the  history  of  the 
business.  Thus  far  it  has  never  failed  to  realize 
our  hope.  This  year  it  must  be  a  big  one  to  keep 
ahead.  Will  you  not  help  make  Tuesday.  January 
2,  the  banner  day? 
* 
lows  out  what  we  are  trying  to  do.  We  intend  to 
rouse  the  public  so  that  they  will  demand  protec¬ 
tion  from  the  United  States  government.  The 
stockholders  should  take  tills  up  first  of  all,  or  the 
public  will  make  them  do  it.  Too  big  a  job — you 
say?  Well,  we  shall  try  it  at  least.  Making  any 
progress?  Yes  sir — every  day  brings  new  recruits. 
♦ 
1  am”  enclosing  quite  a  lengthy  clipping  from  our 
daily  paper.  Will  you  explain  how  in  tlic  world  such 
a  man  as  Myrick  ever  gets  away  with  it?  Seems  to 
me  he  needs  a  lot  of  “attention"  from  right-thinking 
and  right-speaking  folks.  C.  A.  j. 
Massacli  u  setts. 
THE  clipping  states  that  Mr.  Herbert  Myrick  is 
to  be  made  the  head  of  the  new  Loan  Bank  at 
Springfield.  Mr.  Myrick  is  editor  of  the  American 
Agriculturist,  has  been  Indicted,  fo*  nd  guilty  and 
fined  for  defrauding  the  Post  Office  apartment,  and 
has  various  other  qualifications  which  would  seem 
to  fit  him  for  the  back  door  of  society  rather  than 
the  gilded  dome!  We  cannot  explain  the  problem. 
The  R.  N.-Y.  claims  to  have  the  best  service  depart¬ 
ment  of  any  farm  paper  "n  the  world.  We  have 
found  a  customer  for  an  uncauglit  alligator,  restored 
a  lost  canary  bird,  and  performed  some  other  re¬ 
markable  feats  of  investigation,  but  we  must  give 
this  one  up.  The  human  mind  is  incapable  of  rea¬ 
soning  such  a  problem  out.  Our  guess  is  that  dur¬ 
ing  the  past  campaign  Mr.  Myrick,  working  covert¬ 
ly,  as  he  usually  does,  threw  his  influence  in  favor 
of  the  ,  ”esent  Administration — and  is  now  receiving 
his  political  reward!  We  think  he  is  quite  capable 
of  supporting  the  Administration  in  one  part  of  the 
country  and  criticizing  it  in  another.  If  New  Eng¬ 
land  farmers  will  stand  for  it,  they  should  answer 
the  question,  for  they  are  “right-thinking  and  right¬ 
speaking  folks." 
Brevities 
Mulch  the  strawberries  as  the  ground  freezes. 
If  the  sheep  are  not  wintered  well  how  can  they 
summer  profitably? 
What  a  show  window  is  to  a  storekeeper  a  farmer’s 
yard  is  to  his  farm. 
One  thing  that  seems  to  be  prospering  this  year  is 
the  trapping  business. 
IIow  much  bisulphide  of  carbon  is  needed  to  kill 
weevils  In  grain?  About  six  pounds  to  1000  cubic 
feet  of  bin.  Make  the  bin  air-tight  and  put  the  liquid 
on  toy  of  the  grain. 
tiou !”  Let  us  make  these  politicians  “can"  such 
cant  and  say  "yes"  or  “no”  about  what  they  will 
do.  This  season  will  see  the  hottest  fight  ever 
w  .god  at  Albany  over  any  question  involving  the 
rights  of  farmers.  The  Wicks  Committee  suggests 
legislation  Av1i?,rh  will  wipe  out  the  present  Foods 
and  Markets  Department.  At  the  same  time  far- 
TIIE  egg  dealers  in  New  York  have  tried  in  every 
way  to  evade  the  law  regarding  cold  storage 
eggs.  They  want  to  sell  these  eggs  as  the  fresh, 
new-laid  product  without  any  marking.  The  mat¬ 
ter  went  to  the  courts  and  the  Supreme  Court,  un¬ 
der  Justice  Bijur,  has  sustained  Commissioner  Dil 
ion’s  order  for  the  stamping  of  cold  storage  eggs, 
Prof.  Massey  writes  from  Maryland :  “Fall  cab¬ 
bage  plants  have  been  slaughtered  all  down  the  coast 
to  South  Carolina.  Everything  killed  in  North  Caro¬ 
lina  and  Norfolk,  and  mine  too  are  gone.  The  mild 
Fall  kept  them  in  such  a  tender  growing  condition  that 
they  did  not  get.  tough  enough  to  stand  the  sudden 
sharp  freeze,  and  growers  will  have  to  raise  plants  in 
cold  frames,  and  the  crop  will  probably  be  shorter  and 
later  than  usual.  I  have  never  known  so  general  a 
destruction  of  Fall-sown  cabbage  plants.” 
/ 
